PROGRESSIVE JOURNALISM
 Focus on: Corruption and social injustice
 Raise the consciousness of America
 Muckrakers
 Upton Sinclair
and The Jungle 1906
BACKGROUND
 Born in Baltimore
 Grew up poor though
money on his
mother’s side (stayed
with grandparents due
to mother-son
relationship)
 Gave him insight into
how both the rich and
the poor lived
BACKGROUND CON’T
 Love for reading (5 yrs old)
 read every book that his mother owned
for a deeper understanding of the world.
 Entered City College of New York
(14 yrs old)
 He wrote jokes, dime novels and
magazine articles in boy's weekly
and pulp magazines to pay for his
tuition.
 He graduated in 1897 
Columbia University
 Major - Law, but he was more
interested in writing, and he
learned several languages
including Spanish, German and
French.
INVESTIGATIVE WORK…
 In 1904, Sinclair spent seven
weeks in disguise, working
undercover in Chicago's
meatpacking plants to research his
political fiction exposé
 When it was published two years
later, it became a bestseller
EXCERPT FROM THE JUNGLE
Audio
Online
Intro The Jungle:
Jurgis Rudkus - A Lithuanian
immigrant who comes to America
with his wife, Ona
The couple and several relatives have
come to Chicago in search of a better
life and settle in Packingtown, the
center of Lithuanian immigration and
of Chicago’s meatpacking industry
Durham’s Canned Goods – National
Household name
Jonas – Step-uncle of Jurgis
Extra:
Video
Antanas (Rudku) - Jurgis’s father
Aftermath - Consumer Protection
 Novel prompted President Theodore Roosevelt to order
an investigation of Sinclair's allegations about
unsanitary practices
 used the results of that investigation to pressure Congress into approving new
federal legislation to inspect meatpacking.

Pure Food and Drug Act
(1906)
 Halted the sale of contaminated foods and medicines and called for truth in labeling
Meat Inspection Act
(1906)
 The Act mandated cleaner conditions for meatpacking plants
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